Affiliate marketing has been very good to me in terms of building my online business, but this is only because I thought it out when I first got started in 2006. I decided at that time to only promote the products, services, and courses offered by those I knew and did business with, developed a strategy of how and when to make my recommendations, and figured out how to keep increasing my income with more long term strategies. Allow me to explain each of these in greater detail. 

The very first product I ever promoted on the Internet was an eBook on training Yorkshire terrier dogs. I had purchased this information as part of the research I was doing to see if I would be able to write my own eBook on a similar topic. The material I purchased was thorough and well-written, and also worked quite effectively in helping me to train my own Yorkie. I decided to become an affiliate instead of spending the next few months creating my own eBook. This was a pivotal time in my online business development. Within a very short time I had made my first sale, earning twenty-one dollars and sixty cents as my affiliate commission. 

This made me stop to think about what I was doing. I was better able to recommend this particular eBook because I had purchased it and benefitted from the content. This made perfect sense to me. If you are already a customer and believe the product, service, or course to be of great value, it is easier to recommend it to others. I continue to do this, and know that this is a huge part of what has made me so successful in this area. 

The next step was to develop a strategy of how and when I would promote the affiliate products I was recommending. This was before Twitter and Facebook were available and active, so that was not even a possibility. Instead, I began writing about what I was buying and benefitting from. This writing took the form of articles, short reports, blog posts, and more. Content creation online was just coming into its own. 

Finally, I wanted a profit system that would ensure that I could increase my income each month for years to come. I came up with several ideas for this, using regular teleseminars, interviews, and viral marketing.